Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR; TSX: SW) has formally named Kent P. Thexton as President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Thexton will assume the permanent role on November 1, 2018. Thexton has been serving as interim President & CEO since May 31, 2018 when Jason Cohenour, Sierra Wireless former CEO, retired from the company and as director.
Thexton joined Sierra Wireless board in March 2015 and has served as Chair since February 2016. Robin Abrams, a director since 2010, has been appointed as the new Chair replacing Thexton who will continue as a director.
Thexton joins Sierra Wireless from ScaleUp Ventures, a venture capital he started in 2016 following two years at OMERS Ventures as managing partner.
Thexton was previously founding Chief Marketing Officer and board member of O2 plc in the U.K. (now part of Telefonica), COO of Rogers Cantel, and a co-founder of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business in the U.S.
Most recently Thexton served as Chair of Redknee Solutions Inc. (TSX: RKN) until February 2017 when private equity firm ESW Capital took control of the struggling company and made wholesale changes to its board and management team.
ScaleUP Ventures is a $100 million venture fund. Governments of Ontario and BC collectively committed $40 million to the fund.
As Chair of Sierra Wireless, Thexonton was paid US $313,902 in remuneration in 2017. Cohenour received US $3.4 million in total compensation as CEO in 2017.
photo credit: Sierra Wireless
News Release
Sierra Wireless Board of Directors Appoints Kent Thexton as President & CEO and Robin Abrams as Chair
Thexton brings extensive global expertise in both cellular wireless and IoT to accelerate the Sierra Wireless IoT Device-to-Cloud strategy
Vancouver, Canada-October 16, 2018
Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ:SWIR) (TSX:SW), the leading provider of fully integrated device-to-cloud solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced that Kent Thexton has been appointed to the position of President & Chief Executive Officer of the company. Mr. Thexton has been serving as interim President & CEO since May 31st, 2018 and will assume the permanent role on November 1, 2018.
Mr. Thexton brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership experience in the cellular wireless and IoT industries as well as venture capital technology investing. He held prominent roles as Founding Chief Marketing Officer and board member of O2 plc in the U.K. (now part of Telefonica); the Chief Operating Officer of Rogers Cantel in Canada; and he co-founded a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business in the U.S. Mr. Thexton has spent the past five years in Canada as Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures and Co-founder and General Partner at ScaleUp Ventures.
On accepting his role as President & CEO, Mr. Thexton commented: “I am passionate about Sierra Wireless’s global leadership opportunity and honored to lead the company on a permanent basis. For the past four months, in my interim role, I experienced the strong position Sierra Wireless has in the global market and the major opportunity ahead with its strengthening service and solutions business. With dynamic evolutions in the IoT market, I am certain that a clear, aggressive strategy for the company is critical in directing our resources towards key growth opportunities.”
In addition, Robin Abrams, who has served on the company’s board since 2010, has been appointed by the Board of Directors to be the new Chair replacing Mr. Thexton who joined the board in March 2005 and has served as Chair since February 2016. Mr. Thexton will continue to serve as a director on the company’s board.
In her new role, Ms. Abrams brings more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry having held key management positions for some of the world’s most high-profile technology companies, including Apple, VeriFone, and Palm Computing. Ms. Abrams is currently an active director on three other Boards of U.S. based technology companies.
“I am pleased to accept the role of Chair of the Board,” said Ms. Abrams. “Sierra Wireless is in an enviable market position, and I firmly believe we have the right strategy and leadership in place to realize the company’s potential.”
The appointment of both Mr. Thexton and Ms. Abrams comes as Sierra Wireless is accelerating its device-to-cloud strategy, including:
leveraging its global leadership in IoT modules and gateways into fully integrated IoT solutions,
embracing the latest generation of cellular Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies,
deploying eSIMs to provide customers with a simple, scalable and flexible IoT solutions, and
driving a 5G technology roadmap that accelerates the company’s IoT leadership.
Mr. Thexton will be concluding his role as General Partner at ScaleUp Ventures prior to his November 1st start date as President & CEO of Sierra Wireless.
About Sierra Wireless
Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ:SWIR) (TSX:SW) is an IoT pioneer, empowering businesses and industries to transform and thrive in the connected economy. Customers start with Sierra because we offer a device to cloud solution, comprised of embedded and networking solutions seamlessly integrated with our secure cloud and connectivity services. OEMs and enterprises worldwide rely on our expertise in delivering fully integrated solutions to reduce complexity, turn data into intelligence and get their connected products and services to market faster. Sierra Wireless has 1,400 employees globally and operates R&D centers in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.sierrawireless.com.
Connect with Sierra Wireless on the IoT Blog at http://www.sierrawireless.com/iot-blog, on Twitter at @SierraWireless, on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/sierra-wireless and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/SierraWireless.
“Sierra Wireless”, “Legato” and “AirVantage” are trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Media:
Kim Homeniuk
+1 604 233 8028
khomeniuk@sierrawireless.com
Investors:
David Climie
+1 (604) 231 1137
dclimie@sierrawireless.com